Back in February when the move was announced, Impact was set to air at 9:00. The press release that went out from Spike included

Okay, enough rambling about a move that was out of TNA’s hands. I’ve just been meaning to get that off of my chest here at some point. What we’re here for today is a midterm of sorts for TNA management. Back in September when TNA first jumped to Spike, I wrote an open letter to Dixie Carter with suggestions, concerns, and possible directions for the TNA product. Let’s go back and examine the Spike TV Era of TNA Wrestling.

The four main areas of the show are the three divisions (World Title, X Division, World Tag Team) and production.
 

World Title
Champions: Jeff Jarrett, Rhino, Jarrett, Christian Cage

Quick rundown of the history here to start it off. Footage of Jarrett regaining the World Title from Raven aired on the first Spike TV Impact. He was scheduled to defend it against Kevin Nash, who re-debuted on that same episode. However, Nash wasn’t physically able to compete at the October PPV (no real explanation has ever been given there that I’ve seen), and Rhino won a gauntlet match to get the chance at Jarrett. In a shock move, he then won the belt. Jarrett won it back on a prime time special immediately afterwards. Christian Cage won the belt from Jarrett in February.

The storyline that kicked all of this off was Jarrett enlisting the help of America’s Most Wanted and Coach D’Amore at a house show in Canada to screw Raven out of the title. Raven constantly pitched a fit, until he was paired off with Director of Authority Larry Zybysko and phased out. Negative points for that, although he could still fit back in due to the storyline.

Jarrett and his band of cronies ran roughshod over TNA, with the exception of the week or so Rhino took the title. I’ll actually support that move as well, Rhino’s always been a favorite and TNA wanted to do something special to make up for Nash’s no-show at the October PPV. It made for a great moment and a nice surprise.

Sting’s appearance in January unnerved Jarrett and eventually led to Christian winning the belt in February. Since then, Jarrett’s been obsessed with Sting, while Christian’s been off doing his own thing. He defeated Monty Brown in March and is scheduled to face Abyss next month.

Back in September, I was calling for TNA to stick with its ECW-styled World Title scene. It gave them a big difference from the World Title matches you see in WWE. They did stick with more of a hardcore element while Rhino was the main challenger, but then moved it off to the side when Rhino, Sabu, and Abyss got involved in their own issues. Jeff Jarrett has been Jeff Jarrett, you know what you’re going to get with him for the most part. Christian and Sting have been nice additions to the scene, but they’re also fairly predictable. I still think you could have went with a harder hitting style that would have been a true alternative to WWE, which was the primary goal TNA wanted to accomplish when they jumped to Spike.

However, the big secret storyline involving Jarrett, D’Amore, Gail Kim, Jackie Gayda, and the rest of them did make for interesting TV in my book. You kept wondering what it was that Jackie had on them and it made for pretty decent drama. Unfortunately, the whole thing has been almost forgotten in recent weeks, with Jackie forced to join the baddies or Shelley’s footage of her will end up on the internet. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we haven’t seen the end of this situation, and that it might somehow involve the return of Raven (because his path crossed with all of this as well). I guess that section would have to be graded as an incomplete. Although the World Title scene didn’t go in the direction I was hoping, I can’t say I’ve been horribly disappointed either.

X Division
Champions: AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels

Those three guys listed above have been carrying the X Division on their backs since the Spike TV Era began. They been put in every combination, most every type of match, and delivered for the most part. I do think that TNA has relied on them a little too heavily to carry the division, when there are other X Division guys who could’ve used the push and freshened up the division. As good as Styles, Daniels, and Joe are, I know I was getting sick of seeing them together in match after match. The expectations were just too high for them.

My points about the division back in September were that TNA has always given the division the proper amount of respect, and that the division was fleshed out better than any other in the company. Those two points are still true today, so I have to give TNA credit for that.

I did call for a ranking system of sorts to help out since there’s so many worthy challengers. I still think that would be a great idea, especially after the Super X Cup. It would give a storyline reason why guys are wrestling, and would force other contenders to the top of the division instead of seeing round #342 of some combination of Joe, Styles, and Daniels. If you can’t tell, I’m slightly burned out on seeing those guys against each other. Just slightly…

In light of that, I can’t give the division the highest of grades. However, when you burn me out on guys, TNA at least had the good sense to do it with three of the best guys going today, so I can’t knock them too much.

World Tag Team Titles
Champions: The Naturals, America’s Most Wanted

Back in September, I praised TNA for their use of the tag team division, the quality of matches that were coming from the division, and how the addition of Team 3D would improve an already great part of the product. Things have changed since…

Since AMW took the belts from The Naturals, they’ve barely defended them. Look, I have no problem with them aligning themselves with Jarrett’s band of cronies. Their heel turn has been excellent. Everyone was looking forward to the matches between them and Team 3D where Ray and Devon would finally get to hold the one set of titles that they’ve never held.

That’s where the problems started. The matches between AMW and Team 3D have been a disappointment to say the least. The feud started out hot with the now infamous funeral segment that buried the careers of Ray and Devon. Team 3D took care of Team Canada on a prime time special, paired with Rhino to get some revenge on AMW and Jarrett, and appeared to finally win the titles on PPV. However, they pulled off the false finish to end all false finishes, and AMW retained the titles. Since then, Team 3D has been stuck in this purgatory of sorts, fighting the Canadians and cutting awful promos.

I hate to say it since they are one of my all time favorites, but I’m thinking Team 3D might be past it. They’re trying to liven things up, and we’ll see after Impact this week if it works, but I’m getting worried. The feud with AMW was the first time I’ve doubted Storm and Harris. Those two have had good to great matches with every other tag team on the roster, why have their matches with Team 3D been so lackluster? I’m starting to think it isn’t Storm and Harris’ fault.

My other problem is that these are the only tag teams getting any serious attention in the title scene. The poor Naturals have been mostly forgotten and Team Canada is more interested in backing Jarrett up than anything else. The 3 Live Kru/4 Live Kru/James Gang/LAX drama has kept those guys occupied, and that’s been okay.

This is the area in need of the most improvement in TNA currently. It’s an area where TNA can have a clear advantage and provide a true alternative to WWE, but they aren’t right now. It’s an area that they have excelled in recently, but are failing in currently. Put more emphasis on the tag team division TNA.

Overall, the production quality has improved with the jump to Spike. The video packages have been good to excellent, and the new use of licensed music has helped a great deal. It’s odd how big of an impact the use of songs with vocals has had on the packages. Don’t shell out a bunch of cash to try to get big name artists yet, keep working with the ones who will do it for free, or at least cheaply. Good job in this area.

The announce team has been inconsistent. I believe I’m still the only defender of Don West, and I will continue in that position. He adds an element to the broadcast that I’ve never really heard in wrestling before, he represents the casual fan. Of course, he’s a little “smarter” than the casual fan because of his position in the company, but he reacts to things in the way a fan would. I’d rather hear that than someone try to defend a heel’s actions just because they’re a heel any day.

Tenay has disappointed me, although he’s been better as of late. I understand the tendency to plug the hell out of the show, but he’s been trying to hard to be a salesman rather than a play by play announcer at times. It’s a shame, because he’s one of the best true play by play announcers. It’s almost like he’s watched too many of Don’s tapes from his baseball card/Home Shopping Network days. Please Mike, just call the action and push the storylines ahead. Maybe try a decaf too while you’re at it.

• There have been no moves towards making a secondary title, and I can’t really be too upset about that. I called for it in September, but I think it would muddle the shows too much right now. When TNA gets additional TV time, that would be the time to bring in a TV Title, or something similar.
• No moves towards a women’s title either, but I can see the reasoning here as well. It’s pretty much the same as the secondary title, there just isn’t enough time to do it right. The only real female feud right now is Jackie v. Gail, and that’s going to have to be addressed in some form or fashion soon. You still have Traci around somewhere. (Special request to TNA, if you’re not going to push Matt Bentley, please get Traci away from him and have her aligned with someone who is actually on TV)
• The gradual move towards doing house shows has been handled well. I would rather see this be a very measured process, than rushing into it and blowing a lot of money that didn’t need to be spent. Partnering with local promoters/promotions that TNA trusts is a good way of doing it. I’m still waiting on something in Atlanta though…
• The fans have been much better as of late, and that change really seemed to take place when Sting joined the company. The casual fans who have followed him to TNA have really helped the atmosphere.
• I apologize for the Shannon Moore advice, my bad.

Overall, I still enjoy the show. I think things are on the right path, and definitely looking up with the new talent additions and the hype about the move to Thursdays. We’ll see if the 11:00 timeslot works out, I’m still undecided on that. There will definitely be more eyeballs watching the product, which is always a good thing.

We’ll take another look at TNA as we near the one year anniversary of the Spike TV Era and see if the grades have improved or declined. As much as I like the show, there’s definitely room for improvement. Let’s see if the move to Thursdays lights a fire under the promotion, as I’m sure TNA management is hoping.